Wall Street Indexes Resume Selling as Fears of Trade War Shake Investor Sentiment

Barry Adams
06 Mar, 2025
New York City

On Wall Street, stock market indexes resumed selling amid ongoing Trump tariff confusion and flip-flops and growing worries about the state of the U.S. economy. 

The S&P 500 index decreased 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.7%, amid worries that the Donald Trump's economic policies are fueling inflation and pushing the economy closer to a recession. 

The White House confirmed that the U.S. would offer exemptions to the automobiles shipped from Canada and Mexico, but investors worried that the one-month delay in tariffs to a select group of companies is not going to help the overall weakening macroeconomic outlook. 

On Wall Street, the Trump bump after the presidential election last November has now turned into a Trump dump, and investors are increasingly worried that the reckless tariffs with no economic rationale are pushing the economy closer to a recession. 

Moreover, the Federal Reserve is more likely to postpone its rate cut towards the end of the year or may completely avoid it in 2025, amid rising prices at pump stations, grocery stores, and for services.

 

Commodities, Currencies, Indexes, Yields

The S&P 500 index decreased 1.5% to 5,753.84, the Nasdaq Composite edged down 1.7% to 18,234.24, and the Russell 2000 index was down 1.6% to 2,066.80.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged lower to 3.98%, 10-year Treasury notes increased to 4.30%, and 30-year Treasury bonds advanced to 4.58%.

WTI crude oil increased $0.25 to $66.54 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged lower by $0.08 to $4.37 a therm. unit.

Gold decreased by $9.04 to $2,909.10 an ounce, and silver edged down by $0.23 to $32.40.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, decreased 1.74 to 104.01 and traded at a two-year high.

 

U.S. Movers 

Marvell Technology plunged 17.5% to $74.41 after the advanced chipmaker reported fiscal fourth quarter results and the company's first quarter estimates fell short of expectations. 

MongoDB Inc. dropped 22% to $206.71 after the company's weak outlook overshadowed strong quarterly results.

Zscaler Inc. rose 6% to $208.17 after the cloud security company reported strong quarterly results. 

Victoria's Secret & Company dropped 9% to $20.23 after the lingerie retailer's revenue outlook in the current quarter fell short of market expectations. 

Veeva Systems soared 5.9% to $233.06 after the cloud computing company reported strong quarterly results and offered a positive outlook for the current quarter. 

Macy's Inc. decreased 9% to $13.02 after the struggling department store chain reported mixed quarterly results and offered a downbeat sales outlook, blaming "external uncertainties."

Across Macy's business units, including flagship stores, Bloomingdale's, and Blue Mercury, comparable store sales decreased 1.1%. 

While the company's turnaround is taking shape, the company's fiscal 2025 earnings outlook disappointed investors.